Blossoming in the Dark
by Indochine
Summary: It is the story of a family cursed by its own name and whose fate cannot be changed, not by the mother and not by her children. "It's like you're in love with Death, m' Lord, you and all your predecessors! And they tell me it's nothing to laugh about !" Is it unfair? Unfortunately. Is it interesting? For someone, yes it definitely is...
1. Claudia and Death

_Here goes nothing._

_Hi guys. I don't actually know what the hell I'm doing._

_So, here's a multi chaptered story containing all my heacanons about Claudia Phantomhive and Vincent and Frances' past. You can also see that as Vincent kind of watching his record the day he dies (mostly Vincent's POV but sometimes also Frances'). The first chapter isn't really developed because when you're young things don't appear as quickly than when you're aging, and I think maybe you'll see it in the writing style. _Maybe.

_Anyway, I'm not saying any of this is canon but that's how I see their past. Of course since it's the Phantomhive family we're talking about, things aren't cute and funny._

_I hope you'll enjoy the story._

Please **note** that in this story Frances is **Vincent's younger sister** because in my country the official translation presented Frances as "the previous earl's younger sister" (and the English group who translated the hunting chapter had done several mistakes before so I'm keeping my official translation as the accurate one).

_**Disclaimer: Any characters you can recognize from the original story are the property of Yana Toboso.** _

* * *

><p><span><strong>Blossoming in the Dark<strong>

_Chapter 1 : Claudia and Death_

Death is a given in the Phantomhive family, or so it would seem.

It was something Vincent could remember hearing since his childhood, but it took him some time to fully understand what it meant.

* * *

><p>He's three, and his memory is working well now. Frances is very little, she has beautiful blond hair and green eyes contrasting with his raven hair and brown eyes, but Mother likes to sing to them both when they're about to sleep. She sings to Vincent that he has a duty as a brother to his sister, that he has to protect her.<p>

Since he's three, he doesn't understand why his baby sister would need his protection since Mother and Father are around, but he's pleased to hear that Mother trusts him with something so important, so he says yes.

* * *

><p>He's five, and Mother is still singing to make him sleep. Frances is growing fast and she talks almost as well as him.<br>Vincent likes when Mother sings to him, or when she's reading stories because it seems like nothing else exists outside of the room, outside of them three. Nothing, not even Father, always glaring, always frightening, always disappointed.

Father and Mother don't get along, that he knows, and he wonders if it's normal. Father never bids them goodnight, never praises Frances or him when they accomplish something new, in fact it's like Father doesn't want to have them around while Mother is always there.

Vincent knows Father is often away for work, and when Father is not there, at least Vincent doesn't feel he has to be careful about everything he does.

_(He still remember getting scolded by Mrs. Brenda, the governess, when his mother had her back turned and couldn't see what foolishness he could come up with, though.) _

* * *

><p>The same year, they have a new servant around in the house one day, he's not British but Japanese and Vincent wonders where Mother found him.<p>

_(He'll laugh in the future when he'll learn just how the old butler had actually tried to rob the false safe of the manor, only to be faced with his mother's gun, having to decide between dying or becoming a servant of the Phantomhive house after revealing who sent him)_

Father is not happy when he discovers that stranger in his home once he's back from work after two weeks of absence.

**_"Not in my house, not under my rules!"_**

However Mother just shrugs, and turns away, taking Vincent's hand in her own, soft and warm, and taking him away, Tanaka following closely behind his mother, eyeing warily Father but not making any comment.

Father's face is terrifying the little boy thinks, but Mother's hand is reassuring so the anxiety inside him dies quickly.

* * *

><p>He's six when the world around him crumbles for the first time. Frances is four but she notices the changes as well.<p>

_(In retrospect, he realizes he should have recognized the signs of madness, even at that age)_

Following Father's example, Mother has recently started leaving the manor sometimes, often, every week, for a few days or so, only to come back (always before Father) with a pensive and tired look on her face. Tanaka and Brenda are taking care of them in the meantime, of course, but Vincent prefers to have Mother at home, just like Frances does.

And all happens in one night.

Mother is singing to them this evening as well but her voice is different, he can hear it. The hand running in his hair feels tense too, but before he can voice his question, Tanaka suddenly bursts into the room, almost destroying the door. He seems frightened and he's out of breath.

**_"My lady…!"_**

But Mother raises a hand, silencing him.

Vincent and Frances are very awake now and Vincent can feel the anxiety coming back, seizing his entire being, and making his heart beat faster and louder.

That's when Father appears with four men he doesn't know and a woman standing at Father's side.

Mother stands up and pushes Frances behind her. His little sister is scared too but Vincent's attention is focused on the fact that he can't figure out what Father is doing, opposing Mother like that, with all these people in their house. He looks at Mother's face, at Mother standing in front of them, like a shield protecting them and he suddenly understands.

**_"NO!"_** He yells, and he tries to grip Mother's hand to forbid her to go but she seizes his wrist first, pushing him behind her, like she did for Frances. At the same time, the men behind Father move, lunging towards Mother and she doesn't try to avoid them. When they grab her, Vincent's small body moves on its own and he's ready to attack the strangers but Father's voice rises in the room, menacing.

**_"Vincent! Cease at once!"_**

Frances is crying now, and Vincent realizes he is as well. Disobeying Father, he runs towards Mother being dragged out of the room but someone catches him before he can make three steps.

**_"NO! NO! MOTHER!"_**

But Tanaka doesn't let go, and it seems like time is slowing down as Vincent watches his mother being taken outside of the room, her face void of emotions but as she passes Father, a wry smile tugs her lips and Vincent thinks he hears her say _"I'll be back for them"_ but he feels so lost and sad that the words don't reach his brain.

And it's suddenly over.

Mother is gone and Father looks rather _content_ of all things.

But the worst, Vincent thinks, as he cries in Tanaka's arms while Frances is being rocked by Brenda, is that woman on Father's side and her smile. A foul smile. A victorious smile with hatred dancing in her eyes. Hatred for him and his sister.

The same hatred burning in Vincent's heart.

* * *

><p>One month goes by, and it feels like years to Vincent with Mother dead and that woman and Father together with them.<p>

They're not living in the manor anymore but in a house in London, and Vincent _hates_ it. Tanaka and Brenda are still around and taking care of them, making sure they're obeying Father, to avoid a remonstrance or a beating, while Vincent only watches out for Frances, his little sister, just like he promised he would to Mother a few years ago.

And he's worried because Frances doesn't smile anymore. Her green eyes have lost the little light that Vincent liked to see dancing whenever he would make her laugh with his silly pranks, and he knows that it's because of _that woman_.

That woman doesn't speak to them unless she has to, but she has fun finding all the occasions to discredit them in Father's eyes. Speaking of Father, he's slightly different since Mother's death, Vincent notes bitterly, as if making Mother disappear was a thing to rejoice about.

Father's nothing but the man who sent Mother to her death, Vincent thinks when he's angry, and he _hates_ this man.

* * *

><p>On Vincent's seventh birthday, Tanaka and Brenda weren't enough to protect Frances from being beaten harshly by that detestable woman, and when he sees the big bruise on the left side of his sister's face, he realizes that growing another year in life won't be what will stop him from being so helpless.<p>

Father gives him a mirroring bruise on the right side of his face as a birthday present and nothing else when he hears Vincent cursing that woman down to Hell.

Two days later, Vincent's mind is still lost in the grimmest thoughts he ever had of his young life and Frances doesn't want to eat anymore. The young boy can feel Brenda and Tanaka becoming desperate about them, but Vincent doesn't want to play nice.  
>Especially not when Fathers stomps in the library where they're supposed to study under Brenda's surveillance, to tell them that he and that woman are having a child together.<p>

Frances doesn't even raise her head from the alphabet she's learning but Vincent sees the triumphant look on Father's face. It's another victory for that woman, he thinks, and despair clenches his heart a little more.

On the same evening, he overhears Brenda's discussion with Tanaka when he's supposed to be asleep. The governess is afraid that if the child turns out to be a boy, Lord Phantomhive won't need his first wedding's children anymore.

_Death_, Vincent thinks when he hears the terrible words, death just like Mother. Frances and he were going to die at Father's hands, just like Mother. But he's almost glad at this thought.  
>Death is where Mother is right now, so at least they'll be together, and Vincent is fine with that.<p>

* * *

><p>Death comes this very night, but not for them.<p>

He's been sleeping for only a few hours when he hears screaming and smells smoke. Quickly he goes to Frances' room but she's already awake, looking as scared as he is as the screaming continues. The smell gradually grows stronger and he's sure he can feel the room becoming hotter too.

A fire, he realizes with terror, the house is on fire. But why? How? And where are Tanaka and Brenda? What are they supposed to do? And what about Father?

Frances takes his hand in hers and tightens her grip on him. Vincent knows they have to escape, but he doesn't know how and where to. When the smoke starts to make them cough, Vincent tugs his little sister forward and still decides to try. At least they're together, they have each other, and he has his duty as her older brother to do.

However, before they can make it to the door, it opens on its own and reveals someone standing behind it, someone Vincent doesn't know. A man, he thinks at first, because the person is tall.  
>And it's indeed a man clad in black, with long grey hair. A man bearing scars on his face and neck, a man who smiles widely before extending a hand with long black nails.<p>

**_"Come,"_** the man says, and he has a strange voice, rasping and yet hypnotizing, both at the same time, and he lifts two fingers to beckon them closer, but they don't move.

**_"Come,"_** the man repeats, his voice unchanging while they cough some more, **_"your mother is waiting for you."_**

At his words, Vincent feels his heart beating harder and Frances stiffening. _This couldn't be_.

**_"Are you… Death?"_** Vincent asks, and the man's smile grows even wider as he tilts his head to the side and _laughs_.

_(Vincent will laugh too whenever he'll remember about his first encounter with 'Death'. It's so very frightening how right he was while still being so young)_

All feels out of place, the fire, people screaming, and this unknown man laughing in the middle of it all. As he laughs though, Vincent can see the man's eyes and notices even in the darkness of the room how they have a similar shade to Frances' own eyes.

**_"Come, little children,"_** the man says once he's done laughing, his voice back to being soothing and hypnotizing, the stifling atmosphere of the room growing stronger and stronger, **_"I'm taking you to your mother"_**. And suddenly Vincent doesn't care anymore to know if Death is indeed taking their lives as long as he takes both of them to where Mother is. Away from Father, his mistress and this house.

When Death scoops them both in his arms, he can feel himself relaxing for the first time in more than a month and his mind becoming fuzzy. A minute later, the fire is just a thought in the back of his mind and he closes his eyes, briefly wondering if he should have more regret about leaving the world of the livings.

He doesn't hear the screaming and pleas stopping once the sound of several gunshots resonates through the burning house.

Frances doesn't either.

Because Claudia Phantomhive wouldn't have allowed them to and it just so happens…

_(But again he won't know of this until years later)_

_…_That Death sometimes liked to do as Claudia Phantomhive wanted.

* * *

><p>The next morning, Vincent wakes up to his old room in their manor, away from London and the other house, Frances sleeping in his bed next to him, and… he blinks several times to make sure he isn't dreaming, but…<p>

_…Mother _is seating in the comfortable armchair facing his bed, where she would always sit _before_ to make sure he was properly asleep before leaving his room for the night. So Death had been telling the truth in the end…

He wants to cry but there is something he needs to know first, because he's not sure how he's still supposed to be breathing.

**_"Mother… are we dead?" _**

He clearly sees his mother raising an eyebrow, a half smile dancing on her lips so early in the day, and that's when he knows they're not.

He wants to ask how or why but not _now_.

_Now_ is the time he's ready to jump out of his bed, to run towards her, to lose himself in her dress and her perfume, her soft hands patting his head gently, but he can't stop the next question coming out of his mouth before he even takes a single step.

**_"And Father…?"_**

The smile on her mother's lips disappears in just a second, and Vincent can feel her eyes staring at him, and he wonders if he made her angry. He's not sure he even wants to know, he doesn't know what to feel if what he thinks is true, and after a moment that felt like a very long time, Mother blinks several times and she lets out a sigh.

**_"He doesn't need to be mentioned ever again. I don't want you to."_**

And Vincent has spent enough time with just his father in the last month that he knows it's an order he'll _never _disobey.

Frances wakes up at this precise moment, probably upon hearing Mother's voice, and she seems content too, her blond hair looking like the sun and her fiery green eyes shining with happiness for the first time ever in a month.

And, when a few minutes later Miss Brenda pushes the door open, Tanaka following closely behind her, they don't go further in when their eyes land on the scene unfolding in front of them : Lady Phantomhive smiling, her children with tears of joy in their eyes, clinging onto her, as she tries to hold them both. As if nothing happened.

However their eyes aren't fooled, picking up the details the children can't see yet, like the scars on her hands and the side of her neck, and the one they can imagine, probably the biggest one, residing in her heart and soul, already showing in her eyes.

Still they leave the room quietly, leaving mother and children alone.

They're together now, and that's what matters.

The questions would come later.

* * *

><p><em>Hope you did enjoy the first chapter. Leave a review with your thoughtstheories if you can, I always answer. :)_

_I actually think that maybe Claudia's fate was similar to Ciel in some way. Also, I hope I could manage to show a difference in the writing style between the time when Vincent was really young and didn't really understand how things were and how he learnt slowly to be more critical, even at such a young age. _

_Other than that, hmm, try to guess what happened to her? :) _

**_I also wanted to thank _spiffydorksarah_,_ Ten-faced_ and _Dragonna_ for always writing amazing stories and discussing headcanons and theories with me! You guys gave me motivation for writing this story! (Go read their stories guys!)_**

_Take care and see you soon!_


	2. Vincent and Frances, childhood

_Hi, here is the second chapter on I-don't-know-how-many-chapters. At first it was supposed to be a one shot then a 3 chapters story and now I've planned five. Urk, that's totally something I always do._

_Sorry for rambling, anyway here goes for another chapter I hope you'll enjoy! :)_

_**Disclaimer: Any characters you can recognize from the original story are the property of Yana Toboso.**_

* * *

><p><span><strong>Blossoming in the Dark<strong>

_Chapter 2 : Vincent and Frances, childhood  
><em>

The same year, the year Vincent is seven, is at first the year Mother is home again, and they're all back to living in the Phantomhive manor, with days spent happily, composed of Frances learning to read, him finding out what all the books in the library are about and the two of them trying to waltz with each other under Mrs. Brenda's surveillance. Father is never mentioned, just like Mother wanted, so all seem to be good in their own little world.  
>When half that year has passed though, Vincent realizes that Mother has started going out again, for work she says, while Frances and he would stay home with Mrs. Brenda and Tanaka. Sometimes she doesn't come home for half a week and her children can't understand what's taking their mother away from them.<p>

_(They're too young to realize what's happening yet, and in the future he'll sometimes wish to never have reached the truth)_

He often wonders who or what protects Mother out of the manor but he never finds a possible answer, since Tanaka, the only man around the house, mostly stays with them at home.

Still, each day is spent less happily than the previous one when Mother is away, and Frances and he are worried for her, always wondering if she will be back soon.

She always is, but by the time he has entered his eighth year, she doesn't smile very much anymore.

* * *

><p>The day Frances turns seven (and he's above nine), they meet with 'Death' for the second time and he's exactly how Vincent remembers him to be. Tall with long grey hair, black clothes, black nails and a strange smile, and when he appears for the first time in the main hall of the manor, uninvited, Brenda and Tanaka almost have a heart attack before rushing to protect them from the intruder.<p>

Mother's voice rises in the room and a bloodbath is avoided, which sends 'Death' into laughing loudly at the servants' loyalty towards their Lady.

Still, now that he's seeing him in broad day light, Vincent thinks the man in front of him is definitely very peculiar, and that is quite an understatement. Then, Mother leads the guest into the garden for tea, and Vincent and Frances follow closely, while Tanaka stands on guard right behind them.

The curiosity is building up inside Vincent's mind, but he doesn't want to seem disrespectful. He remembers how that man took them back to Mother, and if anything, surely he helped Mother in the past too, so Vincent has to at least stay polite.

However once they are all sitting down around the table, the young boy can't help himself and there isn't a shred of timidity in his voice.

"_**Who are you?"**_

"_**Vincent!"**_ His mother hisses, _**"Don't be rude!"**_ But the stranger laughs his strange laughter and shakes his head.

"_**Don't you know the answer already?"**_ 'Death' says, before turning to Lady Phantomhive, _**"He called me 'Death' on that night." **_His mother raises her eyebrows and then throws a curious look at Vincent. The young boy waits for a remonstrance but none is heard.

Then the man reaches inside his long coat, pulling out a jar full of candies in weird shapes, (Vincent isn't sure but he thinks maybe they're bone shaped) before offering some at Frances who hasn't said a word since the very beginning. Frances hesitates at first but, after an encouraging nod from her mother, shyly extends a hand to take one. Vincent is next and their mother is the last one to help herself.

That's when 'Death' finally decides to answer Vincent's previous question.

"_**I'm an Undertaker,"**_ he says.

But that doesn't explain anything for Vincent.

* * *

><p>After that, the Undertaker comes back often, almost once every two weeks, and it's also a time when Mother doesn't often leave the house. She sleeps a lot and doesn't like to be bothered but she still doesn't smile.<p>

At each visit of the Undertaker, Vincent learns of many things, the first thing being that the Undertaker will answer everything as long as he's laughing in return. And even while still being so young, the boy keeps on noticing how the man has eyes similar to Frances'.

One day, when they were having tea in the gardens again, Vincent unconsciously wonders why out loud. Frances is surprised by his question, and so is the Undertaker but it's his mother's reaction that he doesn't understand. She clearly stiffens as if he asked something particularly outrageous. The precise moment he starts cowering in fear of her anger, the Undertaker's voice rises, and he can _see_ his mother's tamper cooling down.

The strange man asks for the Tanaka's eye color and when Vincent says brown, while realizing at the same time that he can't remember Father's eye color, he thinks he understands what the point is, even if it doesn't explain Mother's reaction.

"_**Humans are all the same,"**_ the Undertaker then says, _**"there are no real differences between them."**_

This time, Vincent is not sure he understood, but he stays quiet upon seeing the shadow of a smile on his mother's lips.

* * *

><p>At some point during Frances' seventh year, their mother suddenly decides that Vincent and his sister are to learn fencing.<p>

"_**I have had the idea in mind for a long time now, but it took a while to find a good professor."**_

Vincent doesn't mind but doesn't really see why Frances should learn it as well since she's a girl. Besides she always has to wear dresses, and nobody can fence in a dress, can they?

His mother slaps him so hard when she hears him that she hurts her own hand in the process and that's the first time Vincent realizes just how _big _the scars on her hand are. Not that he never noticed before (actually Frances and him talked about it more than once, but they don't want to be too curious and bothersome), but the realization of _what_ caused the scars to begin with never fully hit him before that precise moment.

The questions are back in his head but he knows his mother won't answer them, so he tries to forget.

Two months later, it turns out that Frances is probably really good at fencing while Vincent is a disaster and the young boy bows down in apology to both his mother and sister for the hundredth time, and his mother thanks him by asking their fencing professor to train him harder.

* * *

><p>Vincent turns ten and learns what his mother's work <em>actually is<em> when she comes home one evening after a week of absence carried by Tanaka, wounded, a gun in hand, dress all torn up with blood that seemed to be _everywhere but in her body_.

In the end, the wound is not life-threatening at all, the doctor says, but Vincent and Frances don't sleep for days, not understanding what on earth happened to their beloved mother.

When she finally explains, he loses his appetite for a few days and so does Frances, but they both realize how they've in fact always _known _deep inside; that just watching Tanaka's protective side towards them or their mother slowly losing her happiness should have been enough clues, enough for them to realize.

Mother hid the truth to them for a long time Vincent thinks, and he knows she just wanted to protect their innocence and happiness, but what about her own? Frances might not really understand yet what it all means (she's nearly eight) but Vincent does (or at least he thinks he does) and he wishes to erase his mother's suffering.

"_**Why don't you say no to the Queen?"**_ he asks his mother one night in the library, having wondered that himself for about a week.

"_**Because it's a duty that comes with the name. Do you think the people who live in the streets choose that life?"**_

He doesn't ask his other questions, accepting the answer just like that, because who is he to change something his mother wasn't able to?

* * *

><p>It's been now two years since they've started learning fencing, and Vincent still can't beat his sister but at the same time his sister isn't learning anymore from their current professor. She needs opponents of her level, and Vincent needs to learn how to defend himself, which is why their mother decides it's time for them to learn how to use guns.<p>

It's hard at first to think how these guns will be used in the future, but he tries to forget his fear, thinking that he has to protect his family at least.

Their mother is still working, still away from the manor, and they spend each day hoping this time _won't _be the time she won't come home. Vincent thinks that if he can learn how to properly use guns, he'll be able to accompany her to work and to _protect her_. And the resolution is strong enough that he never misses the targets after one month of training.

At around the same time, one night their mother brings back a young woman with curly black hair and dirty chapped hands. Her name is Maria and she's not English but she has apparently lived on London's streets for a good while.

Vincent and his sister don't really understand how Maria met their mother, but Claudia tells everyone in the house that Maria is now their new maid and will be considered as such in the future, and she never likes to be disobeyed so they accept the girl as their new maid and go to sleep.

* * *

><p>When he's almost twelve, his life takes a turn he wasn't expecting.<p>

He's actually better at guns than at swords while Frances is good at both, he studies properly even if he likes to make fun of his preceptors and he awaits the Undertaker's visits eagerly each time, just like Frances, because the strange man's knowledge seems infinite, his laugh contagious and even their mother seems a bit more at ease with everything in the manor when he's around. Vincent doesn't really know why the man manages where he and his sister fail, but he likes being able to see a little smile on his mother's lips.

This time, the Undertaker actually decides to stay at the manor for the night and while it pleases Vincent, Frances is more skeptical and asks why. She appreciates the older man as well, but she is sometimes annoyed at how he always seems to mock everything (her in particular), never taking anything seriously.

The Undertaker doesn't answer her question and beckons them both to the library with two fingers just because he likes the library, but it doesn't matter because Frances gets to understand why that very evening, when several men launch an attack on the manor.

The children don't get to fight, but it's not like they wanted to, and their mother didn't want them to either, but they watch.

The fight doesn't last long and the Phantomhives win the fight without any casualty but Vincent and Frances spend their next week being haunted by what they saw on that night… They realized just who were the people living in their house, fighting _for them_… Mother and Mrs. Brenda both with a gun, Tanaka with deadly blows and Maria with poisoned daggers, causing blood to spill everywhere out of their enemies. They _all_ fought, except for the Undertaker. He stood there, the whole time in a corner, eating his weird shaped biscuits and watching, his eyes on their mother all the while, Frances noticed, and sometimes on Vincent and her, never moving from his place, not even when a bullet almost got to him.

When Frances is better, she asks her mother why he didn't help but Claudia only answers he was just there to make sure nothing would happen to her and Vincent.

Who is he, the young girl wants to ask. Then she sees her mother's tired face, the bags under her eyes, the slumps in her shoulders, and she doesn't.

* * *

><p>Six months later and Vincent leaves for Weston College because he's twelve. He cries a lot like a pitiful child when his mother tells him so, but she isn't moved. Then he gets angry, telling her he'll find a way to escape from the public school and that no one can take him away from his home but she turns his back to him and he storms out of the room.<p>

Frances watches the argument with a lump in the throat and tears at the corner of her eyes because she doesn't want him to go either, but no one can change their mother's mind once she has taken a decision, and she tries to reason him but he doesn't listen, getting angry at her for siding with their mother.

The young girl gets sad when she thinks her brother just left the house for a few months angry at his family but at the Undertaker's next visit, he finds the words to calm her worry.

"_**If your mother could send you away to a safe place too, I'd say she would, little Frances. But she can't, so that only leaves you and me. Boring, isn't it~?"**_

It can be a lie for all she knows and she sighs.

The Undertaker ends the talk with a small laugh before calmly choosing a sword in the armory and facing her. There is a different glint in his eyes this time, something she didn't expect at all, and Frances almost doesn't avoid his first attack…

… And she doesn't win the fight either.

* * *

><p>Life at Weston isn't <em>that bad<em> actually…

_(That's his first positive thought about the school, three months after his arrival.)_

…It just takes some time to adjust.

Truth be told, his mother is at fault. She actually never let them leave the house. Ever.

All this time, professors and tailors were the ones coming to the manor but the children weren't allowed to go see the world existing _outside_. Oh, of course Mrs. Brenda trained them, told them how to behave, the usual politeness they were to use if they ever went out to meet with people but Vincent never got to use all that knowledge, at least until Weston.

_Truth be told_, their mother forbade them to see what society was like but taught them enough that he wasn't lost in the small world that was Weston. In fact, he's probably more aware of everything than the other boys, same age or older, because many times he was warned of the danger, corruption and lies parading everywhere. He has an open eye for all the details he can remember hearing in his mother's stories, but her teachings are lacking something important.

Lies exist, just like corrupted people and danger, but Vincent knows something essential three months after entering the public school, and that is that he's _very good_ at manipulating all that for his benefit.

* * *

><p>Honestly, the anger towards his family takes some time to dissipate.<p>

His sister constantly writes to him and he doesn't reply at first, until a particular virulent one that makes him shake both with fear and laughter, just imagining their mother's reaction if she ever were to read that letter.

Thinking of his mother, Vincent realizes for the hundredth time that she hasn't written to him once in three months. Frances mentions her once in a while in her letters, saying how she sends her greetings, hoping he's behaving properly and working well, and if Vincent was hurt at first, he isn't anymore. Twelve years with his mother taught him a lot and the very first thing to remember is that Claudia Phantomhive is never making the first move. Not that her son is expecting an apology, but he knows _she is_.

He _knows_ she wants him to apologize for behaving rudely, for acting like a spoiled child and probably for not even saying goodbye, but stubborn as he is, Vincent resisted. He doesn't doubt of his mother's feelings for her children (after all, if she didn't love them she wouldn't have taken them back all these years ago), it's just that sometimes she feels so _far away_.

He wants her to smile again, to be happy, he wants to be able to _protect _her, but each time he extends a hand, he can see her walking a few more steps away from him and it _scares_ him. He considers asking the Undertaker for advice, since the man can sometimes make a smile appear on her lips, but he doesn't want his mother to know about it and he's not even sure the man will answer. _Maybe he will if I make him laugh_, he thinks; but if he's really loyal to his mother, Vincent knows he won't, since Tanaka and Brenda never answered any of his questions about his mother.

_What happened to you in these few months, Mother? _

If he ever wants the answer to this question, he has to start acting _now_.

_Maybe_ Weston won't be a useless life experience. Maybe, by training on the Blue house students and the teachers, he will be able to achieve his goals: to stand on an equal foot with his mother, the Queen's watchdog.

* * *

><p>A letter addressed to her mother waits on the breakfast table one morning, and Frances can immediately recognize Vincent's elegant writing. The temptation to open it before her mother almost wins, but she knows her mother won't be fooled.<p>

When Claudia comes into the room for breakfast, she spots the letter and to Frances' biggest surprise, opens it immediately, as if she had been waiting for it for a long time. It is rare to see such a strong impatience coming from her, but she knows her mother loves her children and that she misses Vincent too; it is just strange for her to admit it in front of someone else.

Her mother takes her time reading the letter, and Frances watches expectantly but Claudia's expression doesn't change.  
>When she's done, she puts it back in the envelope and on the table and doesn't say a word, pensive. It lasts one minute and then she stands up, leaving the room. She hasn't pronounced a single word.<p>

Curiosity wins over Frances' confusion as she carefully takes the now opened letter and reads it.

_Dear Mother, _

_I hope you are well._

_First of all, let me apologize for my attitude these last few months. A son should know better than to question his own mother, when so far she proved to be perfectly capable and reasonable with all the decisions taken, and if I could stand in front of you right now, I would bow down and apologize for my disrespectful behavior toward you. _

_However I am not there, for you put me in Weston. I should thank you for the opportunity to learn and act within high society, even though I miss you and Frances dearly, but I cannot in my mind because of my worry for you. For a long time, Mother, you have had to bear a painful cross, and I wouldn't be your son and heir if I didn't offer my own self to you, now that I am becoming an adult. _

_Because I __**am**__ your heir, Mother, and one day I shall succeed you. _

_These months away from you have me reminiscing about everything you have taught me so far, and I realize that I lack too much to follow your path.  
>If you expect to read about my thoughts on Weston and my fellow students, then you are mistaken. This letter is me asking you one more time to indulge in me and my selfish inquiry to become my teacher one more time, to show me the path you have walked so I can make my own, right next to yours.<em>

_I understand it is a difficult decision to take, and a more foolish one to ask, and maybe you are even thinking that I am acting out of turn, but my demand is very serious. Away from you, I am still a Phantomhive, I am still your son, but I also am still growing up and I feel that the world is too wide for me to survive on my own. _

_Of course I wouldn't dream of imposing you anything, a son is to obey his mother always, but you know more than I do how dangerous the world truly is, and I know you didn't raise children only to watch them drown once you will be gone. But, more than anything, I want to be of some support to you, just like you have always been to me, and I cannot if you stand out of reach, leaving me behind. _

_Once again, I am asking if you will please teach me how to proudly bear the Phantomhive name, and how to respect the duties I already have to our Queen, in order to be an heir you will be proud of._

_I beg you to consider my demand, Mother mine, and I shall wait for your answer. Please give Frances and the servants my regards, I wish to see you all soon._

_Yours truly, _

_Your son, _

_Vincent Phantomhive._

* * *

><p>His mother's answer takes a week to arrive and once he has the letter in hand, Vincent is almost afraid to open it. He doesn't want his demand to be rejected but his mother is tougher than all the people he has ever met and he never knows what to expect.<p>

It takes one night to dream about every possibility before he opens it.

The letter says yes.

* * *

><p><em>There you go, hope you enjoyed it. This chapter is still relatively soft, the truth will come later and it won't be pretty. <em>_By the way, if you want to offer some thoughts or ideas or theories to me or just share your own headcanons, just go ahead, I LOVE to read them and to answer! (Talk Phantomhive to me)_

_I hope I did some justice to the Claudia I always imagine in my head (again it's a headcanon but still...)._

_This chapter and the following one are the two I dislike the most because writing children growing out of their mother's influence with time passing is awfully difficult, especially since I have to make it interesting. It gets better at chapter 4 and after, I promise._

_Take care. :)_


	3. Vincent and Frances, growing up

_Here's the third chapter._

_Ahem... Sorry for the wait? A lot of difficulty for the second part of the chapter and it ended up being SO LONG! (sorry) I'm not that happy with it, so I hope it's still readable..._

_**Disclaimer: Any characters you can recognize from the original story are the property of Yana Toboso.** _

* * *

><p><span><strong>Blossoming in the Dark<strong>

_Chapter 3 : Vincent and Frances, growing up_

It takes a few months and a few cases before Vincent's part of the work actually becomes interesting. His mother is a tough teacher, hard to satisfy, but there is also the fact that he's a prisoner of the public school, which does not allow him to go anywhere. Still, he waits patiently for the moment his mother will finally take him with her, even if at some point he dreads of it finally happening. Every new letter, she asks him for more ideas, more thoughts on the Queen's new matter and her responses are sour and cynical whenever his answers don't suit her.

In these letters, he realizes she's different; she's not his mother anymore, she's the Queen's watchdog and she has no time to spare for a young fool like him, he can feel it. So he tries his best, thinks deeper and imagines what he shall do to avoid involving too many people and a lot of damage.

In Weston, they get to go home two weeks for Christmas, a month for Easter and another month in August, and it's when he's back home in April of his first year that his mother tells him very early one morning that he is to follow her to London.

* * *

><p>On the same day, Vincent sees a crime scene from afar with a few of Scotland Yard's men for the first time of his life, but nothing stays in his mind except for the Undertaker's funeral parlor and the man's job as his mother's informant, and he <em>laughs<em> with some kind of excitement during the entire ride back, his mother complaining he was giving her a headache.

* * *

><p>On the 4th of June of his first year in Weston, nobody comes to see him or the cricket game, because his mother is away on a case and Frances is forbidden to go, even with Tanaka.<p>

_(He remembers feeling the bitter taste of disappointment in his mouth because, even if he's supposed to be a growing young man at twelve, it's painful to watch the other students with their family when not even a servant came to visit him)_

There is another boy of his age, from Green house, who has nobody coming to visit either for different reasons, but Vincent isn't in the mood to go make friends. He spends the two days reading and trying to forget the frustration: his mother's work for the Queen is important after all and she can't be in two places at the same time.

...He waits for a sign from his family saying sorry for not being able to come, but the apologies never reach him.

_(He'll learn later from Tanaka that his mother tried several times to apologize for missing the opportunity to visit him, but never finding the right words, the letters didn't leave her office)_

* * *

><p>His second year in Weston almost begins and he has only followed his mother for investigations twice on two cases.<p>

The Underworld is certainly full of people deserving to confront the Queen's watchdog, but his mother is to intervene only when the Queen needs her to, so Vincent mostly spends August reading, hunting (to avoid losing the habit with guns), fighting Frances with swords (and always losing) when he receives his first invitation to an evening ball from a classmate of Blue House.

When his mother hears about this, she sighs heavily but still allows him to go with Tanaka, muttering something like knowing it would happen one day or another and before he leaves, she commands him to be careful, pressing him not to talk too much about him but to listen intently about others.

And what an evening it is; Vincent _adores_ it.

In comparison to Weston, full of shy and ignorant boys, the best of society gathered in one house for one evening is _much more interesting_.

So many people to watch, to listen to, so many secrets to learn, so many moves to play…

'Charming', the women would say about him; 'intelligent and interesting', the men would add. It's almost pleasurable to him to see how a smile, a blink, and the right words used carefully are enough to increase egos and fulfill contentment of people he barely knows.

_(It's like he knows exactly when and at what to smile, able to read within people's feelings and telling them exactly what they want to hear. It's a terrifying gift but a very interesting game.)_

It's on this evening that Vincent learns how manipulation is actually an art more than a deceiving tool.

And names too. Names are what matters.

* * *

><p>His second year in Weston doesn't differ much from the first, he still answers each letter his mother sends and is slowly grasping the concept of what he is supposed to do as the Queen's pawn.<p>

This time again, no elder chooses him as their fag, because he's useful to too many of them, and he doesn't mind one bit. It's supposed to be an honor, to have a brotherly relationship with someone older taking care of you, but he enjoys his small freedom (even if, being no one's fag, he has a duty toward all of Blue House). The lessons are still easy for him and somehow he enjoys seeing the other boys slightly lost when the teacher speaks, and he remembers he has his mother to thank for that.

The 4th of June comes again, much more quickly than Vincent thought it would, and he has some sort of a terrible feeling inside his heart. He doesn't send any letters to invite his family, wondering if his mother will remember _this time_ that she's allowed to see his son once before August.

On the eve of the cricket match (Vincent still isn't playing this year but cricket isn't something he's fond of so he doesn't really mind), a crowd enters the usually closed school and his mother joins them as well, however Frances nowhere in sight.

He's still relieved to see at least her, even from afar, a dignified expression on her face, and her scars hidden under layers of clothes, but he realizes she's not alone when he sees her holding the arm of some gentleman with a top hat shadowing half of his face, someone Vincent doesn't know.

Or that's what he thinks at first.

There are probably a hundred people gathered together in the school's main hall, and it takes a monumental effort from him not to _die_ from laughter when he realizes that the _gentleman_ is none other than the Undertaker.

What a strange man.

* * *

><p>Things finally start to get interesting in Easter after three years in Weston, when his mother requires his help for a new case (of course she doesn't put it that way, but Vincent knows it's what it means). The information Claudia needs can't be accessed the way they normally would because the suspected party is quite careful. <em>Fortunately<em>, a relative is in Weston and has his age so it's now Vincent's turn to shine, and he's resolved to make his mother content and proud of him.

So once Easter vacations end, he goes back to Weston with the firm intention _to make friends_ with Roger Farlow, a taciturn boy of the Violet House, who has natural talent in painting.

It's nothing new that Vincent is skilled with people so it's not hard to fake becoming very interested in Farlow's work when he's running an errand for the Blue House's prefect's fag one morning. However, once his eyes lay on the different paintings in the room, he sees how the boy _truly is good_ and, amazed, he can't help but think, a little idea not leaving his head.

In the end, the case is solved easily and Vincent is almost disappointed by the simple challenge (Farlow was quick to talk, probably not very fond of this side of his family). His heart still swells with pride when his mother offers some congratulations (by letter), though, and Vincent is glad to realize how his mother entirely trusted his judgment and all the clues and hints he was able to gather for her.  
>There is no doubt that this case made him grow, if anything he feels a forthcoming evolution in his relationship with his mother, like he's finally becoming an equal, someone able to keep up with her difficult persona. There is another kind of trust between them now, and he feels like he's closer to her than before.<p>

_(Ha… He doesn't know yet how wrong he is...) _

* * *

><p>Frances comes for this year's cricket game, walking three steps behind their mother, Tanaka holding her arm, and Vincent is happy. Vacations, the only times away from Weston, are the only moments he can see his beloved sister, but he misses not being able to watch her growing up, getting stronger and sharper.<p>

She's thirteen and looking beautiful, her blond hair up in a complicated hairdo, probably done by Maria, and he can feel eyes other than his own on her, heads turning with looks of interest from boys and men of all age.

And Vincent is not pleased; she's still so young and she already has to be burdened with older men's desire. Hopefully, his mother acts like a shield and a glare from her is enough to make men shift their glaze onto someone else.

_How long will it work, though?_ Vincent ponders as he catches a few more interested glances. Frances will keep on growing up as months will pass, and for the first time he realizes that one day she will eventually marry _out_ of the Phantomhive family, forced to leave her name and relatives behind, and the thought makes his whole being shiver.

This year's 4th of June leaves a distasteful feeling behind and somehow he hopes his sister will always be too frightening so that men will leave her alone.

* * *

><p>In August, a big painting of his mother stands majestically above the library's fireplace in the manor.<p>

It's an amazing work that Farlow did; Claudia looks beautiful and dreadful at the same time, a cold glare making her son shiver each time he glances at the painted eyes, a younger face tainted with the same immutable burden his mother constantly bears in reality.  
>Painted with a red dress, a color she never wears but suiting her so well, she looks proud, the painting giving off a passionate but worrisome vibe and at first he can't let his eyes off of it.<p>

However, his mother is not pleased by the sight when she enters the library and wants it taken down immediately. It's probably the fact that it was done by someone involved in one of the watchdog's cases more than seeing something relatively akin to her own dark reflection, but the doubt is still there in his mind.

Vincent still manages to save it from being burnt to ashes, but the painting is stored away by Tanaka and the young man swallows back bitter words, while Frances whispers in his ear that it was a beautiful gift for their mother's anniversary.

He lies to Farlow with a gentle smile when the boy grimly asks him if his mother liked it.

* * *

><p>His fourth year in Weston starts disastrously when Eric Hampton, Blue House's prefect for this year, chooses him as his fag. Tall, blond and an arrogant look plastered all over his face, Vincent isn't sure of how well they're going to get along.<p>

…Especially when Hampton tells him he's very interested in _Frances _whom he saw at the last cricket game_. _

Hopefully, it's only for a year since it's Hampton's last year at school so he hopes time will fly fast.

…

A week later, having experienced nothing but boredom and frustration, he can already tell that it won't.

* * *

><p>Christmas is exciting for the first time in three years when Claudia is told to keep the bed, a strong cold threatening her health, with a case needing to be solved quickly.<p>

It takes a day or two before she decides to send Vincent _and_ Frances, with Tanaka, in order to do the primary part of the investigation while she's still recovering, and he is excited. It's the first time he's going without her and it's yet another way to prove himself worthy of his future title.

London under the snow is beautiful and Frances is amazed. She doesn't go out often, attending a few parties with their mother here and there but nothing ever related to investigations. Vincent is delighted to see what her reaction will be when she sees the Undertaker's parlor.

It's Christmas but the man is in there, just like he always is, baking a few candies, arranging some of his coffins and Vincent thinks the parlor still smells of chemical products and dust, with a very small copper odor lingering behind, just like last time. It's an interesting smell.

Things don't happen the way their mother wanted, though, not when the Undertaker ignores Tanaka's warnings and takes them both to what they shall investigate after they made him laugh, resulting in Vincent and Frances confronting the crime organization with his help instead of just collecting information for their mother.

When the boy realizes his mistake, it's too late and he decides to call for Scotland Yard for the arrest, before leaving behind half of the cartel's men unconscious, beaten down by Frances, Tanaka and himself, while the other half is on the run.

It's Christmas, his sister was amazing and for the first time of his life he was _in charge_.

And it's scary to realize how much he loved it, as if the word "freedom" had finally found its true meaning….

The Undertaker comes back with them to the manor, making Vincent laugh and Frances chuckle on the way back, both ignoring Tanaka's discreet looks. It's when they get down that the young man realizes his mother will probably be angry.

He sighs at the thought of getting upset on this fine day, and when they enter she's there, standing on the stairs and waiting, pale but with a firm look in her eyes. She doesn't say much when he reveals how in fact it was all the Undertaker's idea to do the job in her stead and except for raising an eyebrow, she doesn't seem _too_ startled by the situation's strange twist. The young man notices Tanaka sighing in relief not to have to explain anything, but more importantly _the Undertaker_ isn't surprised at all by his mother's calm composure and Vincent wonders if the suspicious man didn't know in advance the outcome of all this.

It's Christmas and the garden outside is almost entirely recovered by snow. His mother is finally back to her bed, sleeping deeply for the first time in days, and he goes to the library with Frances to play chess. The Undertaker is humming an unknown song as he watches outside, the fire lighting his face, and as Frances reflects on the next move she's going to play, Vincent realizes for the first time how his mother's closest _friend_ didn't age _at all_ since the very first time they met.

_(When talking about this with his sister, she'll snort before telling him how she noticed ages ago, but it's true she's always had better eyes)_

* * *

><p>Hampton wants him into the cricket team this year, as he is told in May, saying the prefect's fag should always be one of the playing members, as he represents the dormitory as much as the actual prefect and Vincent thinks it's bullshit. If anything, he knows that Hampton is trying to manipulate him by flatting his ego and making him want to invite his family to watch him play, which would be a great way for the annoying young man to meet Frances, his true goal since the very beginning.<p>

Actually Vincent should almost congratulate him for thinking so deeply about it, if he wasn't the one Hampton was trying to trick with his suave words and overflowing confidence, and he almost wonders if he has to write to his sister to ask her not to come. He has mentioned countless time when he was home of how Hampton was driving him crazy the entire year, so she probably already has a negative opinion of him, but who knows? Vincent shivers at the possibility of Frances liking that confident prick back before scolding himself inwardly. Frances is his sister, a strong and clever girl who will never fall for that kind of men, not if she was truly their mother's daughter.

Deciding to trust his sister, he now has to find a way not to play in that stupid game. He's not bad at cricket but the simple fact that it would go along with Hampton's plan is enough to make him step _out _of it.  
>In the end, it's easier than he would have thought in the first place, and all he needs are a few insults thrown at that lonely and <em>way<em> too serious German boy of the Green House who never has anybody coming for the 4th of June, in a desert corridor one morning. The young man doesn't really enjoyed being slightly mocked and Vincent can see how the subject of his family is a deep wound inside his heart, but he doesn't think much about it. Why feel sorry when he doesn't know him?

He comes back to Blue House with a few bruises and Hampton doesn't have any other choices but to punish him by rejecting him off the team when he learns of the fight, since he wants to keep up his image of the fair prefect.

It kind of hurts everywhere but it's his victory, and even if Frances comes, at least he will be there to divert her eyes from the game and from Hampton, effectively protecting her from undesired attention.

It's his sweet revenge for all the time wasted this year.

* * *

><p>The annoying Hampton <em>finally<em> graduates almost two months after, but what Vincent will always keep in mind is his crestfallen look after being _properly_ rejected by his sister on the made-up pretense that she was afraid of her feet's fate after watching the disastrous game in which Blue House lost.

He has known her for her entire life, but he is still amazed at how _biting_ her irony is and the word satisfaction is not enough to explain what he's feeling.

* * *

><p>Five months pass and Vincent realizes too late he should have noticed the premises of the storm supposedly coming between him and his mother long before, but he didn't and when it happens, he's taken aback by the consequences of one single question.<p>

**_"Mother… don't you need my help anymore?"_**

He's growing up and maybe that's what caused this question. He thinks he's found his right place as his mother's partner, her trust always in mind, never thinking of disappointing her, so he doesn't understand when she stops asking for his preliminary work, the moment he enters his fifth year, and goes back to investigating alone.

If anything it's a step back and he wasn't expecting it.

**_"You are a cocky one, aren't you?"_**

His mother's words are biting and bitter, and he will never forget the harsh look that followed.

**_"How do you think I managed when you weren't old enough to accompany me?"_**

And what to answer to that? It was never in his intentions to defy her. She _is_ the watchdog and his time hasn't come yet, he knows all that, but his mother still felt like taking the time to remind him of this.

He feels something breaking in his heart, and he doesn't understand what it is. Her trust? His own in her? Hope maybe? All his efforts to be closer, to release her a little from her pain and sadness, to understand her… all these blown to ashes because he approached too closely? Because he went too far? But when?

The dejection he's feeling soon transforms into anger. What kind of mother would want to place herself out of reach on purpose anyway? His heart beats faster with the anger rising, and if Claudia's little boy would have stayed quiet, her grown up son is almost seventeen and he's been too close to burning his wings of innocence to just play nice and forget.

The Phantomhives' duty plunges them into darkness, he sees it too well now, so why refusing all the help one can get, especially if it's to feel safer just for a little while longer? Too many enemies want them dead, so why taunt them and endangering the whole family? Why play with death because of pride?

He's sick of her behavior and foolishness, of all the answers she hides and he realizes that the hand of authority she had on him until now is _gone_.

So he lets it all out and tells her.

* * *

><p>Upon watching his brother going back to Weston after Christmas without talking anymore to their mother, Frances told herself that she would <em>not<em> choose a side in this foolish fight. Phantomhives can't be at war with each other when they're already at war with the Underworld.

Still when Vincent leaves, the manor goes back to being a cold and empty place again, with a mother who seems too absorbed by her work when she's there, leaving only a few servants to talk to. Brenda is getting old, though, and doesn't have many things left to teach her while Maria's happiness only goes to her mother; the girl is like a quiet mouse, doing her chores well and showing an abnormal adoration to the lady of the house.

Tanaka is mostly all she has left to spend her days, since her mother won't allow her to go away from the manor no matter what, meaning no friends and no distractions. And maybe that's why the older butler took pity on her and proposed to teach her a different way to fight with swords a year ago, not really asking for her mother's approval in the first place. He's probably the only reason she's not dead from boredom yet.

**_"Don't be such a spoiled child, young lady,"_** Brenda would scold her when she would catch her sighing. **_"Young women should always be considerate and polite, always happy with what they have." _**And Maria would agree, always on her mother's side.

One day in Spring, when Claudia is about to leave for London, she asks if maybe she could come along, hoping that her mother wouldn't see that as something similar to Vincent's rebellious attitude. It's not the first time she asks, but like the other times the answer is no, and Frances doesn't understand why she can still be disappointed by her mother's refusal.  
>As Tanaka holds the door open, her mother gives her a long scrutinizing look, neither cold nor warm, and for a moment, the daughter can almost feel the weariness in Claudia's composure. Perhaps it's because of her argument with Vincent, but for the first time, Lady Phantomhive tempers her short negative answer with another few sentences.<p>

**_"Do not forget how women in this world aren't expected to be clever and strong, Frances. You are different, you are my girl but your time hasn't come yet. Don't be too impatient."_**

She doesn't say 'just like your brother' but Frances can still hear it and the words sting harder than she thought they would. In the end, she's still condemned to watch her family passing the front door while she waits inside, until her time comes.

_Mother is working for the Queen and Vincent attends Weston, so why can't I even leave the estate? I'm like a bird with its wings cut, it cannot get more depressing._

* * *

><p>... It gets more depressing once Vincent decides he won't come back for Easter vacations and she only knows because he <em>deigns<em> sending her one letter about it. Instead, he'll travel around England for one month or so and she feels like breaking down in frustration. That small and stupid feud even took away the pleasure her brother had to come keep her company.

The most insufferable is that she knows that if one of them were to apologize the quarrel would die down like a fire without wood, but their mother will never be the one making the first move and Vincent was clearly showing his own reluctance by refusing to even come home anyway…

…

She wonders if her married life will be the same, chained to her husband's approval like she is to her mother's, always asking for permission but only told to be silent and proper in return, having to carry children and to raise them to fill her days, months and years.

Then what was the use of having taught her so much?

Ultimately she's not a bird without wings, she's a bird trapped in a cage with a lock that lost its key.

* * *

><p>She's happy to see her brother still has a heart when he decides to come home for his last week of vacation, explaining with a smile how he missed her a great deal, but their mother isn't there. Frances thinks she purposely chose that moment to leave the house for more than a week, no reason given, but it's been a long time since Frances tried to have a real discussion with Claudia and she doesn't think she would have been able to convince her mother to stay anyway.<p>

Vincent is equal to himself, all smile and brains, with lots of stories to tell and she can only listen, having no tales to share on her end. The week is over _too_ quickly and when Vincent goes back to school, she feels _envy_.

_Why can he go, and not me?_ After all they were raised the same way, and like always before, it feels so very unfair to be left behind when they always shared the same experiences and memories until a few years ago. Of course the answer is simple but Frances turns a blind eye to it.

The days are starting to become warmer, and the young girl tells herself that maybe the perpetual stiff atmosphere in the house is affecting her as well and that's what makes up her mind.

**_"Mr. Tanaka, tell my mother I will go see Vincent in June and she is welcome to join me,"_** Frances says as she watches longingly out of the window; maybe she'll be able to go out for a horse ride soon… She sees Tanaka flinching and she apologies mentally. She could speak to Claudia herself, but why bother when her mother won't lift her eyes from her work anyway?

**_"And tell her… that if she does not approve, she has to tell me so face to face."_**

As Tanaka bows and leaves the room, she sighs. She chose a side in the end.

* * *

><p>How many months since he last talked to her? <em>Six<em>, the young man guesses in his bed, on a warm evening in July, _five or six_.

It feels quite long, and without the people to entertain him and the studies to keep him busy in Weston, he knows he would have had more time to think about their argument and maybe to apologize. He _sometimes_ plans to have a discussion when he will be home for vacations in less than a month, hoping she will be there as well, but he quickly forgets the idea because the less he thinks about it, the better he feels… (Especially when she was the one to refuse his help in the first place, it's still hard to stomach…)

Which is why he doesn't expect the prefect's fag to barge into his dorm room at this exact moment, eagerly shaking him awake and holding a telegram marked _urgent, _roughly taking him back to reality.

He's not asleep and yet he has trouble understanding the words lying on the paper. Just to be sure, he reads them several times.

_Poison… Injured… _

Since when was she so careless?

_Weak… Won't last long…_

It feels so _unreal_ because she so rarely ever got hurt. Surely there is a misunderstanding somewhere, just like the first time he saw her wounded…

_Isn't she a simple human, though? _It's a mocking little voice in the inside of his mind that speaks and he curses himself.

_I… have to see her…!_

The desperate thought makes his body move like there's no tomorrow, and well, maybe there really _won't_ be one for his mother…

She's dying after all…

* * *

><p>The prefect didn't want him to leave but it's not as if Vincent cares if he's getting punished or thrown out of the school at this point. He's done being a passive sheep in a green meadow and <em>fuck<em> the prefect and the school rules.

When he gets there with a horse he borrowed from the school's stable, it's the middle of the night. There are a few lights that he can see from a window or two but it's silent. He hasn't felt fear for a long time now, but here it is now, seizing his entire body from head to toe, making him shiver even though it's a warm summer night.

Nobody opens the door for him, but he sees Tanaka rushing from upstairs when the butler hears him.

**_"Y-Young master! Why are you—"_**

But Vincent pays him no attention. How late is he? Is she still conscious? Is she even alive?

**_"Where is she, Tanaka?"_** His voice is strangely calm, and he manages to control the tremors in it.

**_"Her bed, I carried her there. Maria recognized the poison and she says there is nothing we … But the Lady didn't want me to call for a doct—"_**

If Maria thought the poison couldn't be stopped, then they are truly doomed… His control doesn't last long.

**_ "WHY didn't you protect her?!" _**His voice is still calm but the anger makes it very low, like a growl and he wants to sort out his frustration on the poor Japanese man. Deep inside, he knows her mother only brought Tanaka along whenever she truly expected a fight and it hurts even more to think that it meant she wasn't expecting any of this to happen.

He doesn't waste any more time and quickly climbs the stairs before rushing to her bedroom. How many years since he last entered that door? Frances and he used to climb into her bed as a greeting whenever she was back from work the whole year after their father's death, until she forbade them to by saying they were too old for that.

His mother is there, lying in her bed, eyes closed with a pale face and a bloody wound tainting the sheets. Maria is useless crying in a corner, Brenda is refreshing her mother with a wet clothes and Frances is at her side, holding her hand. She's the one noticing him.

**_"Vincent…"_** She knew he'd come.

Upon hearing his name, his mother's eyes flutter open and he feels a little relief. Not for long though, he has never seen her so tired-looking, so ill and he feels his heart beating faster. Why now? Why does she look so _beautiful _even though she's about to die? He knows why, it's because it's the first moment in a long time she looks almost at peace, even though he can decipher the pain on her colorless face. It's contrasting so much with her dark hair…

**_ "Vincent…"_** She says in a hoarse whisper and Brenda moves away, tears rolling down on her wrinkled face, so he can sit right next to his mother. Her hand is sweaty and hot and she doesn't have much strength left, almost unable to squeeze his back.

**_"I thought… you wouldn't come… I thought I wouldn't see you before I…"_**

Frances hushes her down with a soft caress on her cheek, urging her not to talk too much. The sorrow and the anger are almost overwhelming and he tries to speak gently.

**_"Mother, why? You pushed me away, I could have helped you… See now, you—"_**

**"Vincent!"** Frances hisses, cutting him promptly, a flash of anger passing through her eyes as her only warning and she sounds so very much like their dying mother that he almost chuckles in sadness. He turns his head the other way in apology but unexpected words make him look back.

**_"You were… enjoying it too…much… Like I used to… when I was… younger…"_**

**_"Moth—"_**

**_"And it…"_** She takes a deep breath and he thinks he can see a tear at the corner of her eyes. **_"Stops being amusing at… some point. I tried to make… time for you, so that you… wouldn't become like… _him_, and_ me _so… quickly…"_**

_"Him_"? Vincent doesn't understand. Or maybe he does but is afraid to.

**_"Him...?" _**Frances' voice is hesitant, she must have understood as well.

**_"The previous Earl Phantomhive, of course.~"_** It's a slightly mocking voice he recognizes instantly and he wonders why he hasn't seen the Undertaker sooner. He is by the window, looking up at the moon and it's lighting up his face and grey hair. He has his natural grin plastered on his lips, and as usual it's not sad. However since that's just who he is, Vincent doesn't mind; it's been a long time since he discovered part of the truth about the funeral parlor's director.

Still, he doesn't expect the mention of the one they were forbidden to talk about for ten years to be spoken a few moments before his mother's death, however Claudia doesn't react. Her eyes look away in the distance, as if alone in the room but it's the only answer he needs.

How long has he waited for this?

He is wishing it would have been under better circumstances but there won't be any other chance…

**_"Mother…" _**He makes her look at him by squeezing her hand harder. **_"Tell us."_**

He almost regrets his words when tears leave her eyes to roll down on her face. Frances is on the verge of crying too.

**_"Do you… really want my last words to… be about hatred…? About a useless… husband and an even more useless father…? About a fate that will ultimately be… your own as well…?!"_**

For the first time in a year, he takes the time to really think about the answer he wants her to hear, because as far as he knows it might be her last question and her next words her last response…  
>He looks at Frances who tries to control her sobs, at the servants against the wall, at the Undertaker by the window and he thinks of the last ten years.<p>

_If there ever were a time she truly felt happiness... I can't remember it anymore._

It took him _ten years_ to notice it and he forbids his own tears to fall at this thought.

It takes him a minute to decide.

**"I want them to be about the truth. Please… Mother."**

* * *

><p>The woman in the bed looks at her seventeen years old son, at her soon-to-be fifteen years old daughter, and she remembers a question she heard about ten years ago from the man standing now near her window.<p>

_Did he ever prove to be wrong? _She thinks, but at the same time is there a more evident answer?

She reminiscies the last time she told her children a tale, more than ten years before and she sadly tells herself that, _this time_, it won't be a lullaby.

**_"So be it…"_**

* * *

><p><em>Hope you still enjoyed it to some extent. The end turned out to be very melodramatic but you haven't seen the next chapter yet...<br>Speaking of which, the next chapter will be rated **M** because it will be bloody, and as you might have _guessed_, it will be some of Claudia's backstory.  
><em>_Thank you for reading. _


	4. Claudia, truth and regrets

_Hi, here's the fourth chapter. I added a little of Claudia's backstory (mainly her childhood, since I see it a certain way), it wasn't planned it's all bonus so I hope you'll enjoy it.__ You'll find additional explanations at the end of the chapter. Enjoy!_

_Oh, by the way:_ _this chapter is_ **rated M, for _mentions (without details)_ of violence, torture, murder, death, tragic backstory, language and some sexual stuff,**_ you've been warned**.**_

_**Disclaimer: Any characters you can recognize from the original story are the property of Yana Toboso.**_

* * *

><p><span><strong>Blossoming in the Dark<strong>

_Chapter 4 : Claudia, truth and regrets  
><em>

If you exclude that the end isn't pretty and nice like in the other fairytales, it can almost start with a once upon a time.

Boringly, it begins with two sons born of the same parents, both bearing the Phantomhive name, and following tradition, the elder becomes the heir and succeeds to their father.

Soon enough, the two sons marry and become parents as well. The heir fathers two sons and his younger brother three daughters and life seems peaceful, as much as it can be said about the curse the family seems to carry.

Ten years later, with a new Queen on the throne, out of the five growing children bearing the same malevolent name, only three are still alive and amongst them, only a girl survives, her mother and sisters already dead while she's still so young, leaving her behind with her father, to watch as the tragedy unfolds.

* * *

><p>Very soon, the girl named Claudia is taught of the severity of this world when the same handsome Death God takes away three people she loves. When she sees him accidentally the first time (even though he's hiding himself from human eyes) she's very young, maybe six or seven years old, and she watches as he rips her mother dying while giving birth, her older sister throwing herself out of a window because of grief, and her little sister perishing of sickness during a harsh winter.<p>

Three deaths in a little more than a year.

However she doesn't let herself stumble.

She has a duty, the duty to _survive _until she can marry the heir to the Phantomhive family, her oldest cousin. She is to give him children so that the family line can continue, or so her father, uncle and aunt told her, but it is not a repulsive thought, even when she's barely old enough to understand what it means, because she likes her older cousin. He's a clever boy, his parents' pride, also loved by the mansion's servants and very sociable.

His little brother is more difficult to get along with, though. Easily scared by his parents' admonitions, he only seems to be good at music, and since he's never taking any occasion to shine, he always appears as the shadow to his brother's light.

Nobody dares to say it out loud but they're all glad the youngest boy isn't the one inheriting the difficult task of the Watchdog.

**_"Life is never that easily foreseeable, though~…"_** Her deadly friend would say, without glasses but with his hair down and a few scars, so different from the first time his eyes crossed hers, now that he stopped being a Ripper. Enjoying his company and strange mannerisms, she likes whenever he passes by for a visit, her father unaware of course, and she spends hours talking or listening to him when he does, always relishing in the fact that for the moment he chooses to stay invisible to all but her, and that makes him laugh.

* * *

><p>A few years later and she has to wear black again, twice, even though it's a color she doesn't like much.<p>

It's time again for yet other funerals and it stops feeling any different than all the times before, even when it's her fiancé that she watches getting buried after her father. She cries for him of course, just like she cried for her father, watching his aging parents unable to appease their sadness as his brother keeps a stern face, staring at his brother's grave, a shiver making his body shake with the fact that he now has to take his place in a life he doesn't want at all.

With a wife he doesn't want either.

* * *

><p>Married life is hard at first for the both of them, but it's the duty of the Queen's Watchdog that probably stings harder than all the other thorns for him.<p>

It's tough but she tries to be comprehensive. As the second son, her husband always had a way out, a shimmering life of freedom waiting for him, until his brother broke his neck by falling from his horse in a stupid hunting party, leaving him to be the rightful heir of the Phantomhive family.

So she tries to ease his anger and to soothe his disillusions as well as she can, cradling him in between her legs every night but he continues to be rough with her, never opening himself to her no matter what.

Too soon, she comes to realize that there will never be a day where they will act as husband and wife to each other, and if the thought pained her at some point, after a few months she can't remember why she even felt pity for him in the first place.

Now she sees him as nothing but a coward for never accepting a life he can't choose anyway, and she anxiously waits for the moment she will give him an heir so she can be done with him. As his wife, she doesn't have much to do but that after all…

Her only relative enjoyment in her rather depressing life is the shop the Undertaker opened. The thought that the ex Death God decided to open a funeral parlor always manages to make her smile; at least when everything in her life changed, he stayed the same. Be it for age, look or sharpness, he's still laughing at every opportunity he's got, always speaking in mysterious sentences but he is her only source of comfort.

It is a strange relationship, she thinks as she runs her fingers through his long alabaster hair and strokes the scars over his body. He's the one Death God who took her mother and sisters' lives and souls years ago when she was but a child and he's the only being she can rely on.  
><em>It's ironic and yet it's the truth<em>, she tells herself, her limbs entangled with his in the sweet furnace that is his funeral parlor, quickly forgetting her torment and her husband miles away from here, as he makes her writhe with pleasure.

* * *

><p>She's not crying for the love that will never exist between her and her husband, because it doesn't matter. She decides she will love her son instead.<p>

_Their_ son she should say, but it's hard to accept.

At least, she now has a ray of light in the grim manor she lives in and for the moment she decides it will have to do.

When it's not enough anymore because the man is as despicable a father as he is a husband, she gives birth to a daughter and the happiness is enough to make her forget for a time that the anger living in her husband is not to be smothered by anybody.

* * *

><p>She doesn't know why she takes so long to notice he isn't doing his duty properly anymore but when she does, she can't help but think of all <em>their<em> ancestors that he's humiliating by his stupidity.

The slap stings harder than the shame she feels about his actions when she confronts him about it.

**_"I don't care. I won't do it again."_**

She is nearly pushed down the stairs when she calls him a coward in retaliation in front of Brenda, the children's governess, but she doesn't care.

_If he wants to shame his name, fine, but I won't let him dishonor _mine.

She takes all the letters the Queen sent and that he didn't even open, before paying the Undertaker a visit, asking him to come with her. It takes a few laughs before he accepts to follow her as an observer. Her first case is solved quickly and she goes home with a triumphant smile on her lips.

* * *

><p>The womanly perfume smell attached to her husband's skin that she catches when he's back is quite strong and she almost laughs in front of him.<p>

So that was his reason; choosing his mistress before his duty to the Queen, _how foolish was he? _

He doesn't look at her or at the children on the way to his study but as he passes her, what she feels in him is not anger but a renewed pride. Whoever the woman he sleeps with is, she found a way to give him confidence and if Claudia had any sort of affection for him, she would have at least felt happy, knowing that this isn't the life he'd have chosen for himself.

And when a few days later, he notices how she took the letters, he isn't happy. Of course that makes him look bad, the wife of the watchdog doing his job for him, and this is not something he can forgive. Still she raises her eyebrows when he forbids her to continue _his_ work, before laughing outrageously and telling him to go back between the legs of his mistress while she takes care of the family duty.

This time, it's Tanaka, the man she appointed recently as the manor's butler, and who owns her his life, who stops her husband from raising his hand on her.

As her husband storms out of the room, she wonders if he'll ever give into temptation one day, and she almost wants to challenge him just to see if he would really be able to do it.

* * *

><p>He's gone again, this time taking the Queen's letters with him but Brenda had time to make copies before his departure so it's not like he's won this round.<p>

While he's away, she takes care of her children. They're so young and innocent, so beautiful, and she could spend hours watching them sleep and play, but she's sad to see them growing up so quickly when she sees her son already perceiving the way her husband acts, always angry and disappointed in them. Of course, he has yet to beat her in front of Vincent and Frances, but she wants to avoid a scene like that as much as she can, just to keep her children safer for a little while longer.

* * *

><p>The next time he's home, he has a different look in his eyes, something darker, and she shivers in anticipation, knowing something really has changed.<p>

She notices it in the way he looks at Frances, how his gaze lingers on her blond hair, how he frowns when the little child stares back at him with her green eyes, and for the first time in a while, she has a sudden feeling that something is awfully wrong. A few days later, she catches him staring at _her_ and he doesn't deflect his gaze when she stares back, and she can detect something else in his eyes, something she never saw in them before: glee.

So she asks Brenda and Tanaka to watch him, to tell her of any inappropriate behavior, and it doesn't take long to understand what's really going on.

* * *

><p>It still happens sooner than she expects and she's almost surprised.<p>

They are more numerous than she would have thought and the woman he sleeps with is there as well, taunting her silently with her eyes, and Claudia realizes that, pride aside, she should have fled with the children the moment the bastard came back with that look in his eyes. It's her defeat because she wasn't reactive enough.

It's too late now, though, the cries of her children watching their mother being ripped away from them clenching her heart with worry, and she foolishly hope that her husband still believes them to be his to avoid hurting them. Because it's for them more than for her that she's worried.

_Protect them_, she silently bids Tanaka and Brenda as she looks one last time at Vincent and Frances, tears threatening to fall from her eyes as well.

The four men take her to her husband and she has the time to see the woman whispering something in his ear with a devious little smile.

_So that's how it is_…_ You're _her _pet dog now, aren't you?_

**_"You are going to hell, witch,"_** he says rather contently.

Witch?

**_"It is the only place for a death worshiper like yourself_****," **the woman adds in a low whisper.

Death worshiper?

It doesn't matter for the moment. She doesn't have time to think about it.

**_"I will be back for them,"_** she spits with as much venom as her voice can transmit. There is no need to say who "them" are. Her husband raises his eyebrows before indicating to his men to get her out.

_I'll be back for you too,_ she thinks as she's taken away. _For you and your bitch who robbed me of my children. Count on it._

* * *

><p>It takes her a whole month to get back to them.<p>

Actually, it takes the Undertaker two weeks and a half before he realizes something happened to her. He doesn't really have the notion of time so it's when he probably misses her that he realizes something might have happened, even though she warned him that she suspected her husband to take action.

Still, it feels like years in the hands of those mad men, absolutely believing she is worshipping the devil of death. If at first she almost wanted to tell them how _wrong_ they were, how death and devil have _nothing_ in common, she doesn't try opening her mouth anymore after the hundredth time of being burnt or whipped, those men hoping to get some damn confessions out of her mouth.

She fears the pain at first, the harsh beatings, the way they rape her, several of them at the same time, and everything always stings and hurt but _she can't die,_ not yet; so she waits and waits and prays it will end soon.

Oh, it's _that woman's_ idea, that's for sure, because her stupid husband isn't clever enough to think of such a distasteful way to die, he never was, and that sow will _pay_ for it.

Soon, the noises become more terrible than the pain, because she knows she's not the only one in there, other women being accused of similar sins and crimes they did not commit either, in the name of a God she can't recognize anymore. And the screaming… It's haunting the few hours of sleeps that she gets every night, waking her in terror, hoping they're not back for her yet.  
>Still, somehow she holds up, Frances and Vincent playing in her mind, and she spends the time she's sane hoping for their safety, imagining her revenge towards the rats that locked her there.<p>

Her tormentors speak of death every day, of how they're going to kill her for being so sinful, but it never comes and sometimes it's a distorted laugh that's coming out of her mouth in answer to their words because in the end, they know_ nothing_.  
>They don't know <em>how beautiful<em> Death can be, how considerate and interesting it can sound, how carefully it takes the souls of those who once lived before confining them safely in order for the dead to move on to the afterlife. They don't know and she will never say anything because _he trusts her_.

They don't know and they will stay unknowing of these facts forever, their deaths invisibly hanging right in front of their eyes, and she just has to reach for a way to make them see it, _to make them fear it_.

She doesn't know why she holds onto the belief that the Undertaker will arrive to rescue her, maybe because her captors think they have a hand in making death happening when they don't, but she still clings at it, the way she clings at her memory of their children, smiling and laughing happily together as if she was never forced to leave them to that _bastard_.

And finally… one day, he's _there_, coming out of nowhere, stopping the whip beating harshly her naked body, freeing her from her bounds and pushing away the man approaching a poker in flame near her hands. For once, he's not laughing and there is a different shining light in his yellow-green eyes, something she can't put a name on, as if gauging the lives of every men present in the area, deciding on those who were to live and die, but before long, he shakes his head, a smile finding its way to his lips, and he gives her a long black coat to cover herself with.

She decides of her captors' fate herself the moment he tells her how much time she's been away.

Vincent and Frances have been waiting for too long.

She kills them all as quickly as she can because she doesn't have time to make them suffer.

The suffering will be for the other two, the ones who put her there.

When she's done, the pain is still there but at least all the noises stopped, except for the sound of the Undertaker clapping his hands together in what she thinks is appreciation, or maybe resentment, an indecipherable expression on his face, his yellow-green eyes shining, reflecting what awaits all lives when the end comes.

She doesn't expect him to feel sorry for her because it's his lack of feelings that gives her the necessary motivation to go forward.

That's what she loves him for.

* * *

><p>It takes a week or so before she can recover a part of her strength and she cannot wait.<p>

The Undertaker keeps her in his funeral parlor the whole time, attending to her in his own way, his attitude towards her unchanging as if she was never abducted, but she knows it's not a way for him to cope with what happened to her. He doesn't mind either that she doesn't answer as passionately as before whenever she feels his fingers caressing her arms or his lips brushing against her neck. She needs time for that, but sometimes she doubts to ever feel the desire for sexual proximity again.  
>He wouldn't mind that either, she muses, lovemaking being only secondary in the bizarre attachment they have for each other.<p>

Often, she thinks of Vincent and Frances as she heals slowly, the Undertaker cheerfully noting when he spots a scar he knows won't disappear, and she wonders how much she will have missed in only a month. She also thinks of the torture she will inflict on her husband and his mistress when she watches him doing his job on bodies murdered in the streets, observing how he knows where to open carefully even though the people are already dead. He probably knows where it would hurt on somebody alive too...

**_"Teach me."_**

It's the first time she has given him an order and she shivers when his strange eyes gaze at her, the left one cut in the middle by a terrible scar, as the corners of his mouth quirk up.

…

He prefers to madly waltz with her instead.

It was a stupid thing to ask anyway. She already knows _where_ to hurt.

* * *

><p>Revenge is best served cold, but she still thinks a fire is the best option to destroy all evidence. Her life can't end with her revenge, she still has to be free with her children and there is no way this wretched man is going to cast his shadow on her family for the rest of her life. So she plans the whole night carefully.<p>

First, she appears in front of Brenda and Tanaka. They're both discussing when the Undertaker carries her to the window and she enters without a sound. They think she is a ghost at first, and how could she blame them?

That's when they tell her.

She doesn't lose time, and after giving the servants her instructions, she's off on her own path, deciding not to go see the children first, afraid her resolution might waver if she does, and going straight to the salon. The Undertaker will take care of them, she isn't worried for that.

Each step is silent and precautious, bringing her closer and closer to what she's dreamed to do for a month, her heart beating loudly in her ears. She doesn't feel the fear and she doesn't expect to fail, and that's precisely why, when she sees them talking with low voices, his hand caressing gently the belly carrying their child, she understands that she's won.

It's their defeat.

Taking a deep breath, she aims through the door-frame with her pistol carefully, just like her father taught her to do years ago, when she was still hoping to become the perfect wife of the Queen's watchdog. The taste of the remembrances in her mouth is bitter as the first shot touches his knee and his yelp of pain and surprise when she enters the room is like a nice melody to her ears.

He doesn't have time to get up from the armchair, especially not when she fires a second time, shooting his other leg, and he falls on the floor, gripping his wounds desperately.

His mistress yells in fear and tries to go straight to him but when Claudia points the gun at her, she halts.

She can see the questions already coming to their lips and she doesn't smile when she reminds them calmly of how she told them she would be back.

**_"For the children," _**she adds, **"my_ children."_**

She can decipher a mad look in the eyes of her husband's mistress and it's almost too easy to push her down when the woman poorly attempts to disarm her, one bullet finding its way into the woman's arm as another shriek of pain resonates through the house.

They're both on the floor right now, defenseless, at her mercy, all her senses screaming to end it, to make them suffer like they made her suffer, but it's not enough. She needs the fear, she needs to see them admitting _she won_ and she won't stop before she witnesses it.

So she sets the room on fire, earlier than what was planned at first, taking some embers from the fireplace and throwing them at curtains and furniture, the fabrics and wood setting ablaze immediately, the smell of smoke slowly rising in the air.

They are still screaming, senseless things coming out of their mouth, but in the commotion there are a few sentences that she manages to decipher in her husband's voice.

**_"Claudia, spare me! Take the children, but spare me, please! I'll leave you alone but don't let me die like this. Please!"_**

Hmph.

_How distastefully like himself,_ she thinks.

**_"See?"_** She turns towards her enemy, seizing her by the hair to stare at her face, intently watching her reactions. **_"That's the man he is. The cowardly, pathetical bastard that married me."_** She tightens her grip, shaking the woman's head in her fury. **_"He does not want to save anyone but himself, that is the kind of man he is. Even if you are carrying his offspring, if he has a way out he will take it, leaving you behind. Now, isn't he a wonderful man to fall in love with? ISN'T HE?_**

**_"I… I…"_**

She wants to rip that head off, to strangle the pale neck below and she knows it's now or never because the fire is propagating quickly and she doesn't have much time left.

The woman is crying and she looks definitely ugly with her ruined make up, still clenching at Claudia's wrists to get free as she tries to speak, to apologize maybe, but that won't do.  
>Nothing will stop her and no one either, she thinks, quickly taking a few steps back before firing the gun twice in the woman's belly, and the soon-to-be lifeless body collapses.<p>

One is done.

Only one left.

An agonizing, painful scream is heard coming from her husband's direction, still bleeding on the floor, unable to move and to escape his incoming death, and Claudia raises her eyebrows. _So maybe he really did love her?_ She wonders, before shaking her head. It doesn't matter, it's too late now.

She takes a few steps towards the man who dishonored her, watching him shrivel in fear and she sees it in his eyes. She has won and he's nothing.

A wild anger takes over the need of revenge when she realizes this.

**_"All you had to do was repudiating me and letting the children go,"_** she yells, losing the little control of herself that she had, **_"and I would have gladly let you leave with that whore! Blame nobody but yourself for your demise, you wanted to hurt me and so this is why we are here today. It is YOUR fault!"_**

He doesn't answer, his eyes staring at his mistress' lifeless body and it's more than she can take. Aiming one last time, she fires two shots.

One in the head, for never trying to accept her.

One in the heart, for the betrayal of a man towards his wife he swore to protect in front of God.

His eyes close and he dies, just like that, shattering her soul and her feelings with him, dooming herself for her sins, and in spite of the fire, she shivers.

_No tears_, she tells herself, because that's not who she is.

It's over.

And she leaves.

* * *

><p>It's almost dawn and the house behind her is burning in a great fire. A purifying fire, the sect would have said back there and she smiles a bitter smile.<p>

It's over, and they met the end they deserved.

She walks until she sees the carriage she told Tanaka and Brenda to safely prepare, the horses already pawing the ground, as if excited for the ride back to _home,_ and she climbs quickly inside it before the servants can really look at her. She can't have them asking questions. Not now.

Because of the curtains, it's even darker than the end of the night outside and for a minute it feels like she's trapped _back there_ once again and it's suffocating, but she takes a deep breath and before long her eyes accommodate to the darkness. Soon, she can distinguish two little sleeping children, still lost in their dreams, their heads resting on the Undertaker's laps.

Her heart swells as she's overwhelmed with the desire to take them into her arms but she can't disturb their sleep so she just lays a kiss on their cheeks, reveling in the sweet little smell of their hair and the soft caress of her lips against their skin.

_Sleep well, my little loves_, she thinks as she watches them dream. _We're finally going home, it's over._

She's about to close her eyes as well, rocked by the carriage and the obscurity of the night when she hears his voice.

**_"You know you will have to tell 'em about what happened at some point, hmm~?_**

She doesn't answer.

_._

Actually, at this moment in the past she couldn't know it wasn't the end but the beginning.

_._

_._

But _now_ it is indeed the end. _Her_ end.

**_"The Phantomhives can survive as long they have each other…"_** She has trouble speaking now and the grip on her children's hands loosen.

.

.

.

And their beginning.

**_"You two can survive…"_**

_…I know I raised you well enough for that._

* * *

><p>She's dying, Vincent knows it.<p>

She's dying, Frances feels it.

This miserable story is over and she can't talk much more but they don't leave her. They can't.

So they stay by her side until the very end, each holding one of her hands as they watch her cry, fighting for each breath, pain sometimes arching her body, as they cry with her.

.

Claudia loves them.

Her son and his handsome face, his dazzling smiles and his wits. He's cunning and she hopes it will save him.

Her daughter, all beautiful and strong, more so than she ever was. Than any other woman ever was. She hopes Frances will have a way out of this.

_Protect them_, she inwardly asks Tanaka, Brenda and Maria.

There is something else she wants to say out loud, some words she should have uttered sooner, some words she hopes they don't need because they understood, but time plays against her and she can't, something deep inside forbidding her to. So instead she searches for one last pair of eyes, beautiful yellow-green eyes near the window, shining with the feeling of _something _approaching on such a peaceful night, and the moment her eyes meet his, she meets death and lets it take the soul that she damaged so many years ago.

.

.

The very last light of awareness leaves her eyes at the same time as the last tear, and only a promise stays behind hanging in the air when Claudia Phantomhive dies, as deafening as lightning in a silent night.

It's the dying promise of the terrible life awaiting the ones bearing the Phantomhive name.

.

.

.

_A life full of regrets._

* * *

><p>It's the dawn of the thirteenth day of July in the year 1866 and their mother just passed away, leaving them alone to face the whole world, prostrated in one of their rooms, the girl crying and the boy holding her in his arms, shedding silent tears as well.<p>

In the end, the woman named Claudia Phantomhive left this world with nothing but tears in her eyes and a hollow emptiness in her heart, the love for her children never strong enough to close the gap between them and her. Until the very end she stayed out of reach, always _always_ too far away, they realize it now… But at least now they understand why.

_Now they know._

**_"Ignorance is bliss, they say."_**

A cackle resonates through what was once Claudia's bedroom, but it's not reflecting amusement or mockery. After all, Death in itself is just a never changing fact so it's useless to feel sad or angry or happy about it, right? To every life there is Death waiting before the credits and no one can ever change the end.

Whether they like it or not.

He smiles at the hatred and desperation he can feel in the hearts of Claudia's children when he thinks these words, and he senses the pain, a dull sorrow that threatens to swallow them whole, just like it swallowed their mother once, but he doesn't understand it.

He can't feel these emotions, he doesn't know how to.

…

He knows the loneliness will be back soon, though.

* * *

><p><em>There you go, I hope the end was okay and that I didn't screw it up too much. One last chapter to go guys (except if it's too long and I end up cutting it in two), and three important characters to Vincent and Frances will be introduced in it, since I can't close the story without mentioning the people they're deeply linked to in their future. There are still little bits of the plot left unresolved <em>(want some hints, ahahah? One is a name, H, and the other a noun, m)_ and even though I wanted to go until Vincent's death at first, I'm going to stop even before Frances' wedding._

_About** Claudia and the Undertaker**, if you're interested:Originally, I've always thought that if Undertaker were to be more than interested in a particular human, it would have to be with someone closely linked to death: the Phantomhive family represents that in Kuroshitsuji, and I imagined Claudia in a way that she knew what death was like even when she was still a very young girl. Don't ask me about her "power" though, it's just something silly I imagined, taking in consideration that the Phantomhive family has been wiping off the Royals' problems for generation and there must be a reason for that. Maybe a supernatural reason even, I thought, hence the eye thing (like an inheritance from the first generations, don't look too much into it :S). I'm just waiting for Yana to prove me wrong here, since I have nothing to back my headcanons.  
><em>

_Also, we were shown in Kuroshitsuji before that Rippers could have an interest and some kind of attachment to humans (Grell and Ann for example) and even feel sexual attraction so I hope, for that reason, that you didn't mind the little bits of UT/Claudia I've sent your way in this chapter. :) I'm sure most of you know what I think of Vincent and Frances' genes and maybe that chapter gave you the necessary hints you were lacking in case you weren't sure. _

_See you for the final chapter, I haven't started writing it yet so I hope I will be able to soon, so you won't have to wait long. Thanks for reading and for the amazing reviews. ;) :3_


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